1. Technical Field
Exemplary aspects of the present invention relate to a fixing device and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to a fixing device for fixing an image on a recording medium and an image forming apparatus incorporating the fixing device.
2. Description of the Background
Related-art image forming apparatuses, such as copiers, facsimile machines, printers, or multifunction printers having two or more of copying, printing, scanning, facsimile, plotter, and other functions, typically form an image on a recording medium according to image data. Thus, for example, a charger uniformly charges a surface of a photoconductor; an optical writer emits a light beam onto the charged surface of the photoconductor to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor according to the image data; a development device supplies toner to the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor to render the electrostatic latent image visible as a toner image; the toner image is directly transferred from the photoconductor onto a recording medium or is indirectly transferred from the photoconductor onto a recording medium via an intermediate transfer belt; finally, a fixing device applies heat and pressure to the recording medium bearing the toner image to fix the toner image on the recording medium, thus forming the image on the recording medium.
Such fixing device may include a fixing rotator heated by a heater and an opposed rotator contacting the fixing rotator to form a fixing nip therebetween through which a recording medium bearing a toner image is conveyed. As the fixing rotator and the opposed rotator rotate and convey the recording medium bearing the toner image through the fixing nip, the fixing rotator heated to a predetermined fixing temperature and the opposed rotator together heat and melt toner of the toner image, thus fixing the toner image on the recording medium.
In order to use heat effectively by suppressing unnecessary heat dissipation to a component outside the fixing device and retaining heat inside the fixing device, the fixing device may incorporate a reflector or a heat shield disposed opposite an outer circumferential surface of the fixing rotator to reflect heat onto the fixing rotator.
In order to suppress heat dissipation to the component outside the fixing device, the reflector or the heat shield may be disposed opposite the fixing rotator in an increased circumferential span of the fixing rotator. However, a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the fixing rotator and a separator that separates the recording medium from the fixing rotator are disposed opposite the outer circumferential surface of the fixing rotator. Accordingly, the reflector or the heat shield may not span the increased circumferential span of the fixing rotator to avoid interference with the temperature sensor and the separator. Since various components are accommodated inside the limited space of the compact fixing device, it is difficult for the reflector or the heat shield to occupy a substantial space. Accordingly, it is requested to locate the reflector or the heat shield in a decreased space while using heat effectively to heat the fixing rotator.